Hepatitis A and Typhoid for Caribbean cruise?

[Crimson60]

This is my first question here - I have just registered. We are hoping to have our first ever cruise and we are interested in an Eastern Caribbean one - Royal Caribbean.

 

As we have never been on a cruise before (we live in Scotland) we are wondering about the advice to have Typhoid/Hepatitis A vaccination. Would this be adviseable for the two one day shore excursions to Haiti and Puerto Rico?

 

We are just planning at present and would welcome any information or advice - anything at all, thank you.

 

Crimson60

[NMLady]

I don't know health laws for Scotland but in our cruises from US to Caribbean as passengers from US we have never had to have any kind of vaccinations or shots. But we have never had port stop in Haiti.

Edited August 19, 2016 by NMLady

[cb at sea]

No vaccinations are required by any of the Caribbean islands. In Haiti, you're sequestered on a private beach, and will not be roaming about that country!

[champagne123]

No shots at all required. The only thing I would concern myself with is the Zika Virus/mosquito's...especially if you are of child bearing years. Purchase DEET and spray yourselves head to toe (male and female). :)

Edited August 19, 2016 by champagne123
fffff

[OCruisers]

They are not required for your ports stops.

[Crimson60]

Thank you for all these helpful, very quick, replies. Very much appreciated. I'm a bit slow as new to Cruise Critic so I'm just finding my way around.

 

Now that I've registered I'm really looking forward to searching for information and learning from the experience of others.

 

Crimson

[champagne123]

You picked a great cruise line. Which RCCL ship are you thinking of sailing?

[Crimson60]

You picked a great cruise line. Which RCCL ship are you thinking of sailing?

 

We are looking at 8 nights Eastern Caribbean on Freedom of the Seas. Thank you for replying, champagne. As it will be our first cruise everything is new to us and I'm really looking forward so much to learning a lot from you all on Cruise Critic.

 

Crimson

[champagne123]

We are looking at 8 nights Eastern Caribbean on Freedom of the Seas. Thank you for replying, champagne. As it will be our first cruise everything is new to us and I'm really looking forward so much to learning a lot from you all on Cruise Critic.

 

Crimson

 

Well, welcome aboard and welcome to Cruise Critic. May I suggest that you go over to the RCCL threads and read everything and ask anything there. This way you learn all about that particular cruise line instead of a mish mosh of answers from people that may have never cruised RCCL. Although a lot of the lines are similar, they all have a little bit of difference in the rules. For example...RCCL allows each adult to bring a bottle of wine on board, but Norwegian Cruise line does not. Good luck with everything. There are tons of experts on the threads of RCCL that will be happy to help you. They have helped ME plenty over the years.

 

Just click on this....http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

[klfrodo]

Required?? No

 

Hep A should be a normal part of recommended vaccinations just like the annual flu shot

[wheezedr]

Enjoy your first cruise. You will not be required to have any vaccines.

In my humble opinion and after 36 years of medical practice all travelers and at least in the good old USA, everyone, ought to get Hep A as a routine vaccine. While Hep A is generally the mildest form of the Heps it is essentially present everywhere. The vaccine on the other hand is one with among the least side effects based on its mode of development. All of my patients, children, were always routinely vaccinated for it as in fact Hep A is endemic to California.

Typhoid on the other hand is a less effective vaccine although primarily given orally in the US. Given the limited risk of exposure I would only recommend its use to travelers whose exposure risk is significant.

[leaveitallbehind]

Just for information, the stop in Haiti will be at Labadee, which is a small peninsula on the coast which is a private destination that is secluded from the mainland. There are no excursions that take you inland away from the RCI area.

[John Bull]

Welcome to CC.

 

Legal requirements are generally to prevent a traveller from spreading a disease, and as others have said there are no legal requirements in the Caribbean if you're going direct from Scotland rather than from, say, the Amazon region.

 

But for your own health you've probably already been inoculated for hep and typhoid, but it may be time for a booster.

And although we know the Caribbean, we don't know your medical histories.

So phone your surgery & fix up an appointment with the nurse who specialises in travel matters. In England (don't know about your side of Hadrian's Wall) it's a free consultation.

Go armed with your itinerary, including any overnites ashore or in port, and any planned trips inland.

The nurse can also give you advice - for instance on avoiding mosquito bites (chikungunya is more prevalent than malaria) or excessive sun (as you know, many Scots tend to burn easily).

Nothing to be alarmed about, but a trip to the surgery will give you reassurance.

 

JB :)

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Well, welcome aboard and welcome to Cruise Critic. May I suggest that you go over to the RCCL threads and read everything and ask anything there. This way you learn all about that particular cruise line instead of a mish mosh of answers from people that may have never cruised RCCL. Although a lot of the lines are similar, they all have a little bit of difference in the rules. For example...RCCL allows each adult to bring a bottle of wine on board, but Norwegian Cruise line does not. Good luck with everything. There are tons of experts on the threads of RCCL that will be happy to help you. They have helped ME plenty over the years.

 

Just click on this....http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

 

This is good advice. You inadvertently made your point by saying you can't take wine on NCL. :p NCL doesn't limit the amount of wine passengers of age can bring on board. :D You just have to pay a corkage fee and you can bring as much as you'd like.

[donaldsc]

This is my first question here - I have just registered. We are hoping to have our first ever cruise and we are interested in an Eastern Caribbean one - Royal Caribbean.

 

As we have never been on a cruise before (we live in Scotland) we are wondering about the advice to have Typhoid/Hepatitis A vaccination. Would this be adviseable for the two one day shore excursions to Haiti and Puerto Rico?

 

We are just planning at present and would welcome any information or advice - anything at all, thank you.

 

Crimson60

 

While you may not be required to have them, getting a Hepatitis should is a good idea. I do not know how the hospitals in Scotland are but the joke here in the US is that in some hospitals, you enter w/o hepatitis and leave the hospital with it because you get infected in the hospital.

 

DON

[champagne123]

This is good advice. You inadvertently made your point by saying you can't take wine on NCL. :p NCL doesn't limit the amount of wine passengers of age can bring on board. :D You just have to pay a corkage fee and you can bring as much as you'd like.

 

Oops. Meant to say MSC. Thank you for the correction...:):):)

[vince_g]

Required?? No

 

Hep A should be a normal part of recommended vaccinations just like the annual flu shot

 

That's BS.

 

They should only be given if someone has certain risk factors due to their health, job, or lifestyle. Otherwise there is no need.

[mjkacmom]

That's BS.

 

They should only be given if someone has certain risk factors due to their health, job, or lifestyle. Otherwise there is no need.

 

As someone who picked up hep a while traveling, I think it's a wise move to get the vaccination if you are going to be dining out a lot. It's so contagious, and it's horrible - a month long stomach bug. I lost 20 pounds and missed a month of work (DH lost more, and missed 6 weeks of work). And we were in our early 20's and very healthy.

[jocap]

John Bull's advice is what I'd give- in fact, our health centre likes to have details of all holiday travel, so that they can make sure we're up to date with various jabs. If the injections are advised, they are free.

[Langoustine]

That's BS.

 

They should only be given if someone has certain risk factors due to their health, job, or lifestyle. Otherwise there is no need.

 

I think you're confusing Hepatitis A with B, which usually spreads through blood or sexual contact. Hepatitis A is extremely easy to be exposed to, even in Scotland or the US. The disease is usually spread when a person ingests fecal matter, even in microscopic amounts, from contact with objects, food, or drinks contaminated by the feces of an infected person. There have been several recent cases in restaurants here in the NYC area, and it was announced today that Sea Port Products Corp is recalling a large batch of its scallops after at least 206 people became sick with hepatitis A. According to the CDC, the scallops were supplied to restaurants and other commercial groups in Hawaii, Nevada and California.

[klfrodo]

That's BS.

 

They should only be given if someone has certain risk factors due to their health, job, or lifestyle. Otherwise there is no need.

 

Can I call BS on BS??

 

Hepatitis A is very contagious and easily preventable

[wheezedr]

That's BS.

 

They should only be given if someone has certain risk factors due to their health, job, or lifestyle. Otherwise there is no need.

 

You are misinformed on this issue. While the OP was inquiring only about Hep A, both Hep A and B have been routinely given in the US for well over 10 years. Actually Hep B has been given for even longer with the first dose being administered to infants prior to their departure from the hospital after birth. Both of these vaccines are high benefit and low risk.

As others have pointed out Hep A is transmitted by the fecal- oral route. In my years of practice the most common source of spread was a silent carrier usually working in a school cafeteria or some other food service where uncooked items, think salad bar, was the source of contamination. Hence all the signs in restaurant bathrooms reminding employees to wash their hands before returning to work.

I would recommend HepA to all travelers and still caution them to be careful of food from street vendors. No vaccine is 100% effective so common sense regarding exposure is still worthwhile.

[nikkiw60]

We are from the UK and had all the injections, free from our local surgery. At the end of the day better to be safe than sorry.

 

 

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